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Karnataka Elections: How much impact do the educated candidates have?

May 11, 2018

Education plays an important role in making humans virtuous, it incites prudence and vigilance in the mind. Though education is not necessary to have a successful life but, it definitely helps the person to have a better understanding and knowledge. Indian politics is highly influenced by money and power, and voters rarely pay too much heed in the educational background of the candidates.

To be a politician in India a person need not be educated but as long as he/she is an eloquent orator, and can connect with the people, empathise with their problems and interest, influence the supporters through his wealth or strength, he/she has a fair chance of having a successful political career. But, India has had a rich political history of educated and uneducated politicians cooperating amongst each other, both sects trying to inculcate something new while respecting each others opinion.

In every election, candidates participate from distinct backgrounds, for instance state of Karnataka, which is set to go for polls tomorrow, has a total of 2536 candidates contesting from 224 constituencies. Among the 2500-odd candidates, around 50 are illiterate, 981 candidates (nearly 38%) are graduates or above and, around two percent candidates have cleared Matriculation. Out of the total candidates contesting in the upcoming Karnataka elections, only 22 possess doctorate degree, while just 236 candidates are post-graduates. Nearly, 403 candidates in the election fray have a graduate degree and 305 are graduate professionals. Remaining 53% of the candidates, which accounts for more than half of the candidates contesting in the polls have declared their education qualification to be between 5th and 12th standard. These figures highlight the stark difference in the number of educated graduate or above politicians and the ones who have managed to clear senior secondary schooling.

It is because of lack of decent education that our politicians, quite frequently, blurt out half-witted comments in public denting their party’s image as well as making a laughing stock of themselves for the global media.

Somehow, educated politicians are likely to play an important role as the legislators, they have a better sense of decision-making due to their in-depth knowledge of the subject, which can surely have a positive affect on the functioning of the country’s parliament. If a politician is aware of the nits and grits of politics, he can work in a manner that would lead to a prosperous India.